F for Fake (1973) (Orson Welles)
The strange, entertaining pseudo-documentary F for Fake was Orson Welles’ last competed film as a director (he called it an “essay film”). Welles came upon a documentary about the art forger Elmyr d’Hory and discovered that one of the interviewees, Clifford Irving, later wrote the infamous forged autobiography of Howard Hughes. Welles re-edited the documentary footage and added a plethora of bizarre new scenes. Welles serves as narrator and on-screen host, and is an inimitable presence if there ever was one.
F for Fake is daringly original in its freestyle approach to the documentary format. Like too many of Welles’ films, F for Fake didn’t make much of an impression at the time of its release, but if ever a movie were ahead of its time: Welles’ “essay film” could be seen as a precursor to such films that blur truth and fiction as Bowling for Columbine and Borat.
F for Fake is available in an excellent two-disc DVD from the Criterion Collection. Among the extras are the documentary Orson Welles: The One-Man Band – which isn’t very good, but is nevertheless valuable for its tantalizing glimpses at unfinished Welles films – and Orson Welles’ innovative 9-minute trailer, rejected by the American distributor but every bit as good as the film itself.

Aileen Wuornos: The Selling of a Serial Killer (1992) (Nick Broomfield)
Nick Broomfield is a household name in Britain for his rambling, Michael Moore-type first-person documentaries. Like Moore, Broomfield is the star of the show, but his style is even less polished: Broomfield actually holds his own boom mic, and his films are never just about their subjects, but also about the making of the films themselves (1998’s Kurt and Courtney has a scene with Broomfield on the phone being informed that his funding has fallen through). Broomfield’s unpolished style, however, is entirely fitting his often-grungy subject matter. You leave a Broomfield film like Heidi Fleiss: Hollywood Madame, Biggie and Tupac, and Kurt and Courtney with a clear understanding of the nightmarish worlds they depict.
Broomfield’s greatest achievements are his two documentaries about Aileen Wuornos, the prostitute serial killer played by Charlize Theron in Monster (2003). The first, Aileen Wuornos: The Selling of a Serial Killer, isn’t so much about Wuornos as about the media circus that surrounded her arrest and trial. Broomfield highlights two especially mercenary figures: Steve Glazer, Wuornos’ shifty lawyer (“Call Dr. Legal!”) who is actually filmed smoking marijuana on his way to a meeting with his client; and, more enigmatically, Arlene Pralle, Wuornos’ Fundamentalist Christian “adoptive mother.” This documentary will haunt you with its unflinching depiction of greed and exploitation.
(PS: Broomfield’s other Wuornos documentary was 2003’s equally good Aileen: Life and Death of a Serial Killer).

Infernal Affairs (2002) (Andrew Lau, Alan Mak)
Martin Scorsese remade this razor-sharp Hong Kong thriller into a little Oscar-winner called The Departed, and while Scorsese’s film is undeniably the greater achievement, the lightning-paced Infernal Affairs is more purely enjoyable. With Tony Leung Chiu-wai, Andy Lau, and Eric Tsang in the DiCaprio, Damon, and Nicholson roles, and with excellent crimson-hued cinematography by the great Christopher Doyle (2046, Hero), this riveting film is one of the smartest and best-crafted entertainments to come out of Hong Kong this decade.
Incidentally, the same creative team reunited in 2003 for two Infernal Affairs sequels, and well as 2006’s disappointing Confession of Pain, which Leonardo DiCaprio has optioned for an American remake. Will lightning strike twice?

Oldboy (2003) (Park Chan-wook)
A drunken lout named Oh Dae-su (brilliantly played by Choi Min-sik) is locked in a room for 15 years, and is mysteriously let free, psychologically unstable and with a thirst for vengeance. Oh forms an unlikely bond with a pretty young chef named Mi-do (Kang Hye-jeong), but he encounters his captor (Yu Ji-tae), who gives him five days to find out the reason for his imprisonment, or else Mi-do will die.
The intense, electrifying Oldboy is the second film of director Park Chan-wook’s “Vengeance Trilogy,” preceded by the intriguing Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance (2002) and followed by the masterpiece Lady Vengeance (2005). Oldboy won the Grand Jury Prize at Cannes in 2004 and has developed a sizable cult following in the west, and it’s not hard to see why. Drawing on influences as varied as Greek tragedy, Quentin Tarantino, and Japanese manga, this film is an immensely powerful tale of how revenge can corrupt the soul, or, on a simpler level, a damn entertaining mystery/thriller. I really, really love this movie.

Baadasssss! (2004) (Mario Van Peebles)
In 1971, Melvin Van Peebles directed the revolutionary low-budget independent production Sweet Sweetback’s Baad Asssss Song, about a black gigolo who kills some racist white cops and has to go on the lam. The film, technically shoddy but infused with anger and some memorable images, shattered box office records and proved to Hollywood that there was a viable black audience. Sweetback is commonly cited as the first ‘blaxploitation’ movie, a subgenre that would lead to Shaft, Superfly, and Foxy Brown.
Over thirty years later, Melvin’s son Mario, an accomplished director in his own right, made this hilarious and oddly inspiring film about the making of Sweetback. Mario gives a charismatic performance as his own father, and as writer/director, he supplies a valuable first-hand perspective. We see that Sweetback was a true guerilla production, with Melvin telling the union bosses that it was a porn film (unions aren’t interested in pornos), ignoring permits, and getting money wherever he could get it – including a $50,000 cheque from Bill Cosby.
You don’t have to have seen Sweet Sweetback to enjoy Baadasssss! – it’s a terrifically entertaining film about how one man’s determination and quick-wittedness changed the movie industry. And when one of the cast members is Adam West, how can you go wrong?